With the increasing number of communication capable devices utilized by consumers, data networks in the home and other structures have become more of a necessity rather than a luxury. However, it is often cost prohibitive to utilize traditional network wiring, such as cat5 wiring, to provide local area networks within a home. Solutions, such as HomePlug®, have been developed that provide data connections over alternating-current (AC) wiring within a structure. Two or more HomePlug® compatible devices are plugged into sockets of the AC wiring of the structure, and each device modulates signals that are propagated to the other devices of the network over the AC wiring.
Because the AC wiring of the structure is not designed for carrying data, users are often confronted with problems when establishing data connections between two or more electrical sockets. For example, there may be noise, present in the AC wiring near one of the sockets that interferes with the strength of a signal received by a HomePlug® device coupled to the socket. Noise may be caused by any number of sources or devices coupled to the AC wiring of the structure, and noise may adversely affect the data transfer rate between two or more HomePlug® devices. Thus, not every socket in a structure is appropriate for utilization in a HomePlug® network. However, it is a problem for a user to accurately identify which sockets are appropriate for utilization in a HomePlug® network. In other words, it is problematic for a user to identify the sockets that provide less than adequate data transfer rates for HomePlug® networks.